Preview:

STATE OF MINNESOTA IN SUPREME COURT A07-1975 A07-2070

Court of Appeals

Page. J. Concurring in part, dissenting in part, Gildea, C.J., and Dietzen, J. Concurring, Anderson, G. Barry, and Meyer, JJ. Took no part, Stras, J.

Greg Siewert, et al., Respondents, vs. Northern States Power Company, d/b/a Xcel Energy, Appellant. ________________________ Charles A. Bird, Bird, Jacobsen & Stevens, P.C., Rochester, Minnesota; and William D. Mahler, Will Mahler Law Firm, Rochester, Minnesota, for respondents. Timothy R. Thornton, Kevin M. Decker, Christianne A. Riopel, Briggs and Morgan, P.A., Minneapolis, Minnesota, for appellant. ________________________ SYLLABUS 1. The filed rate doctrine does not preclude consideration of plaintiffs claims Filed: January 26, 2011 Office of Appellate Courts

for injunctive relief or monetary damages.

1

2.

The primary jurisdiction doctrine does not bar plaintiffs claims for

injunctive relief to abate the nuisance resulting from stray voltage, or plaintif fs claims for damages. 3. The statute of repose does not preclude consideration of plaintiffs claims

for monetary damages or for injunctive relief related to the maintenance, operation, or inspection of the electrical distribution system. Affirmed. OPINION PAGE, Justice. Respondents Greg and Harlan Siewert, doing business as Siewert Holsteins, sued appellant Northern States Power Company (NSP) for damages and injunctive relief based on negligence, strict liability, trespass, and nuisance for stray voltage, which they claim was caused by an electric distribution system owned and operated by NSP. NSP moved for summary judgment on grounds that the filed rate doctrine, primary jurisdiction doctrine, and statute of repose precluded consideration of the Siewerts claims. The district court largely denied NSPs motion for summary judgment, but certified these questions to the court of appeals as important and doubtful.1 The court of appeals held that neither the filed rate doctrine nor the primary jurisdiction doctrine barred the Siewerts claims for monetary damages, but the filed rate doctrine precluded
1

The district court granted NSPs motion for partial summary judgment dismissing the Siewerts claim of trespass on grounds that the Siewerts had not shown that NSP had interfered with their right to exclusive possession of the property. The district courts ruling as to the Siewerts trespass claim is not before us here.

2

consideration of the Siewerts claims for injunctive relief. Additionally, the court of appeals held that the statute of repose did not bar any of the Siewerts claims. We affirm the court of appeals with respect to the Siewerts claims for monetary damages but reverse with respect to the Siewerts claim for injunctive relief to prevent further nuisance by NSP. Harlan Siewert and Greg Siewert, father and son, are dairy farmers. At the time they moved to their new farm in rural Wabasha County in 1989, they owned between 150 and 200 cows. Following their 1989 move, the cows milk production decreased. Milk production seriously decreased by the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Siewerts dairy herd also experienced health problems and unusually high mortality rates. The Siewerts hired several experts to determine the cause of the decreased milk production and high mortality rates in the dairy herd. In 2004, at the recommendation of Dr. Andrew Johnson, a forensic veterinarian, the Siewerts began to explore stray voltage as the possible cause of the herds losses. Stray voltage is a phenomenon in which an electrical current--voltage that returns to the ground after powering an appliance--passes through an object not intended as a conductor, in this case, allegedly the Siewerts dairy cows. The system that supplies electricity to the Siewerts and their neighbors is a multigrounded wye system, a "system of conductors in which a neutral conductor is intentionally grounded solidly at specified intervals." National Electrical Safety Code (NESC)

Download A07-1975, A07-2070, Greg Siewert, et al., Respondents, vs. Northern States Power

Minnesota Law